Late afternoon in Saratoga on a sparkling summer's day, and we're gazing at water with cocktails in hand. Children frolic on a beach as parents watch idly from Adirondack chairs painted in glossy red, white and blue, and boats nuzzle docks under the hazy sky. Somehow, we've stumbled on the beachiest upstate scene a short drive from the Northway and the trackside action on Union Avenue.

At Lake Local, thick mariner's ropes swag the expansive gray-washed deck, and waitresses in tank tops hustle foaming pints from an outdoor bar to communal high tops and waterfront tables. It's like discovering a seaside boardwalk on the far side of town.

Lake Local is tucked inside a marina at the north end of Saratoga Lake. Lacking only a Mr. Ding-a-Ling ice-cream van to complete the scene, there's a Board Shop for kayak and SUP rentals, courtesy dockage for diners, a casual menu, live music, even a food truck cooking up a weekend brunch. About now, you should be asking yourself why you've wasted hot days fighting over chairs at Victoria Pool or sweltering in track crowds when there's fish and paddleboard yoga minutes from Broadway.

Michael Phinney and Jonathan Haynes, owners of the Local Pub and Tearoom, the Irish-themed pub on artsy Beekman Street, launched the Lake Local last summer after wrapping extensive renovations. That's moot if, like me, you didn't visit when it was the Tropic Hut or Bayshore before that. You won't know the white awning and outdoor bar has quadrupled capacity or that the craftsman wooden bar inside, with its vintage Hacker Craft appeal, is new. You'll be too busy marveling at the view, good from any seat, and the surprisingly delicious pina coladas ($10) churned in a slushy machine behind the bar.

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Cuisine: Freshly made burgers, fish sandwiches and salads with eclectic snack foods from Mexican street corn to curried chicken salad and flatbread pizza. This is pub fare from The Local with a heavier lakeside focus on fish. Full bar featuring cocktails and half dozen draft beers, some regional, surprisingly none local.

Ambiance: Seasonal, marina casual lakeside bar and restaurant with a beachy, contemporary style. Family friendly, bar-focused. Live music Tuesdays and weekends.

Price: $-$$$

Hours 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Open seasonally from May to October/November.

Price ratings for inexpensive eateries based on average of entrée costs:

$: $9.95 and less

$$: $9.95-$15.95

$$$: $15.95 and higher

I run around looking for a table and taking it all in: the contemporary beachside style, a half boat protruding from the building, mobile luxury portable bathrooms, outdoor TVs and a bubbling, summery crowd. There are no reservations, so securing an outdoor table on a busy night involves showing up, providing a cellphone number, downloading an app (NoWait) and awaiting a text while you sip your first lakeside beverage. It's a protracted exercise for sure, but 20 minutes later we'd been sprung from our contingency spot propping up a waterfront cocktail rail. Evidently it works.

Food is brought in hammered metal trays and faux fryer baskets befitting the burgers and crisp skin-on, hand-cut, twice-fried fries, blanched nightly by a dedicated employee. There's a smashing hand-chopped ahi-tuna burger held together as a patty by the lightest sear and smothered in guacamole and sweet Thai-chili sauce on an English muffin ($14). Soft tortilla fish tacos ($13) earned our top vote for firm haddock slathered in a slightly mad fusion of Sriracha-mayo and salsa with a shock of purple cabbage slaw. And with few sauces house-made, a juicy watermelon and goat cheese leaf salad ($11) stayed bright tossed with Saratoga Dressings' poppyseed vinaigrette.

It's a stretch to dub this farm-to-table, though the website stakes a claim. Head chef Brady Dillon honorably rephrases it as "reliably fresh ingredients, locally sourced when we can." Tomatoes and fresh corn come from local Moe's Farm, milk for shakes and chowder from King's Dairy, and bread for the BLT is Rockhill Bakery with commercial breads rounding the rest out. Even the burgers are purveyor-made in Albany and delivered daily with fish and seafood. On such a casual seasonal menu, it's fine. This all-day kitchen isn't preserving lemons and baking bread

We were smitten with the charred Mexican street corn ($9) drizzled in chipotle-spiked mayo, lime and tangy cojita. It's straight-up phenomenal — sweet, salty, citrus and smoky all at once — and requires a kind friend to tell you about the black bits in your teeth. The sweet local corn turns up again in a fresh, buttery steamer bucket ($24) which, at the top end of the price spectrum, seemed a little skimpy with only eight clams, three shrimp, sausage and taters and the mussels 86'd.

Servers admirably check thirst levels every 15 minutes under the setting sun, so mentionable flaws are limited to bland salsa and guacamole in tiny plastic cups more commonly used for burger condiments than a $12 appetizer. And a $16 open-face "Local shaved ribeye hoagie" (keep telling yourself "Local" on the menu is only a nod to the restaurant's name) is an unexpected mash of browned ground beef under a Velveeta orange skin of "house cheddar cheese sauce". It's hard to imagine this comes from the same creative hands as the tacos and tuna burger. We cheered ourselves up with Beverly's Famous Carrot Cake ($7), a fabulous classic homemade by an investor's mother.

Lake Local has obvious appeal with cocktails, cold draft beers and food (including a kids' menu) that's unfussy and surprisingly good. Better yet, it's open every day from 11 a.m. Who can't see themselves making a day of lunch and an afternoon noodling about in a kayak? Chattering friends pack the high tops; parents peaceably zone out while kids entertain themselves in the sand. There's something for everyone here, an alternative universe to the teeming summer track.

Dinner for three — including three appetizers, three entrées, a salad, a dessert and four cocktails — came to $170.38 with tax and 20 percent tip.

Susie Davidson Powell is a freelancer writer from East Greenbush. Follow her on Twitter, @SusieDP. To comment on this review, visit the Table Hopping blog, blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping.

Cuisine: Freshly made burgers, fish sandwiches and salads with eclectic snack foods from Mexican street corn to curried chicken salad and flatbread pizza. This is pub fare from The Local with a heavier lakeside focus on fish. Full bar featuring cocktails and half dozen draft beers, some regional, surprisingly none local.

Ambiance: Seasonal, marina casual lakeside bar and restaurant with a beachy, contemporary style. Family friendly, bar-focused. Live music Tuesdays and weekends.

Price: $-$$$

Hours 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Open seasonally from May to October/November.